


Unbroken flames

by ProdigySorcerer



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-02-26
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-03-15 09:48:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3442637
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProdigySorcerer/pseuds/ProdigySorcerer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A series of short fics written around the Arianne Martell/Viserys Targaryen ship.</p><p>Chapter 3</p><p>Having recently landed her first job in IT, Arianne Martell gets caught up in the office politics at Storm End's Software and winds up needing to study under resident script kid Viserys Targaryen with the final objective of usurping his position. But Viserys isn't willing to part with all his secrets and leave himself vulnerable.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The next morning I

For once Arianne was having the time of her life at her family get together, not that she didn’t like spending time with her relatives usually but her new beau, a stoic northman her own age with a respectable career in corporate finance was just winning over father, who in between discussing the stock market and politics with her boyfriend was giving her looks of beaming paternal pride.

Uncle Oberyn himself took her aside to congratulate her on just how handsome her new lover was and to offer with a wink advice and maybe more in the lovemaking department from him and aunt Ellaria should she ask.

Even aunt Elia, ever the cynic when it came to romance, not that Arianne could blame her seeing as how her marriage to Rhaegar ended, seemed to think that he could be “the one”.

Athrough she didn’t want to admit, a not so small part of her relished the jealous looks Quentyn was throwing her way her perfect date only highlighted the contrast between the suave yet intellectual socialite she was and the dorky single loser he was. And to think that Father was considering giving him more responsibilities in the company before increasing her’s and only because the nerd had better grades at school.

Her youngest brother Trystane though was simply a joy, immediatly looking at her boyfriend as a older brother figure and starting to emit the sounds of a hellish syren whose only purpose was to drag her down to the pits of torment ...

Arianne then grimly and resolutely gathered her strength and stopped her alarm clock, “Damn that infernal contraption and I was having the sweetest dream, the perfect boyfriend to make father and the others realise I’m not some ditzy party girl but a responsible adult” she thought although the mere act of internally monologuing was provoking a head ache.

“By all the gods, why oh why did I go to the club last night when I’ve got the official family vacation starting breakfast this morning ???” she continued only for the relevant information to pop up in her head “Oh yeah I needed to unwind from Mr. Grim Stoic Honorable North-man breaking up with me and going to the girl he was fucking on the side ... and this whole time we were supposed to be exclusive !!!”.

On the one hand she felt like she really dodged a bullet, on the other this completely derailed her scheme to impress Father and upstage Quentyn so she instinctively vented a little anger by hitting the mattress, which didn’t react as it should have.

Arianne was loath to open her eyes, that was how much last night affected her, but she had the sinking suspicion her mattress was also supporting the weight of another person.

Which it was, a male in fact judging by the hands and feet sticking out from under the cover, not the most well muscled but definitely male, wiry indicating maybe a runner, a swimmer or maybe a intellectual who took care of himself.

What was more interesting were the locks of long silver hair she could see from her vantage point, his face was turned from her, probably to evade the morning sun’s rays, Arianne didn’t usually go for guys with long hair especially not dyed long hair, but last night must have been an exception.

An exception which she unfortunately brought home, and now judging by the sun’s position was entirely too late to smuggle him out without someone noticing, and she really didn’t want to dwell on this but this had to happen exactly on the day Arianne was supposed to present her serious long term boyfriend to her family. 

A idea popped into her head, really one that worked more with movie logic than real world knowledge but she was at that stage where she’d take anything, maybe given the dyed hair he was some sort of artist, even father would accept a lot from those who were artistic personalities and who just happened to be the heirs of multi billion golden dragon fortunes.

“Yes a trust fund artist wouldn’t be such a bad downgrade” she thought as she proceeded to put her hand on his, pale oh so pale this guy wasn’t from Dorne surely, shoulder and shake him up until he woke up.

“Uhh, don’t do that ... don’t ... do you want to wake the dragon ???” the man said grumpily having been awakened from his sleep,his accent was definitely foreign it’s elongated vowels and pronunciation making her think King’s Landing or mayhaps Dragonstone.

“This is important, are you an artist ? Are your parents rich ?” she inquired unashamedly only to be shocked when he turned around revealing familiar purple eyes which coupled with the hair prompted a blast from her past “ Rhaegar ?!?” Arianne said before she could stop herself.

“Huh, oh no don’t tell me you ‘know’ my brother I’ll never hear the end of it.” he said furloughed.

“I don’t exactly know him but I know him.” she replied.

“Yes that’s what I was implying ... as to not be overly crass.”

“No, you knuckle-head I know him, but we didn’t fuck like we did ... I guess we never really met in person before I’m Arianne ... ”

“Glad to make your acquaintance ... uh lovely room a bit small we would have been better served by returning to my hotel room, 5 stars you know I would have kicked Dany out and we could of ... ”

“Arianne Martell ” she managed to end her sentence.

“Martell ... “ he realised his eyebrows shooting up “like Elia ... that explains why you said my brother’s name and why you seemed to want to kill me at that instance. Yes we never did meet why we were only 6 or 7 when they got divorced.”

“And Aegon no offence doesn’t really like to talk about the time he has to spend with his dad.”

“His not over at our house that much anyway my nephew, and you’re technically my good niece ? You know because your dad is the brother of my sister-in-law ? Despite us being the same age and ... ”

“What I am uhm ... “

“Viserys” he filled in.

“Thanks, what I am Viserys is kicking you out and please be so kind as to leave discretely I promised my father an upstanding long term boyfriend and all I have to show is a bloody Targ ... ”

Viserys who up until now had been keeping to his side, suddenly got in her face like he had learned his social etiquette from Saturday morning cartoons.

“And what’s wrong with Targaryens ? Be carefull you don’t want to wake the dragon, do you ?”

When Arianne showed negative levels of fear or awe at what was apparently his catchphrase, Viserys decided to power on through:

“What was that about wether I am an artist by the way ? ” Viserys continued not even deigning to bring up her secondary question about wealth, the majesty and resources of the Targaryen’s surely would be known even in Dorne.

“Forget it.” Arianne said dismissively and with a roll of her eyes.

“Well it just so happens that I am in fact a musician ... ” Arianne started to feel the fluttering of hope in her chest “ ...I’m the lead guitar for my band Dragonforce sole author of our single ‘Waking the Dragon’ which has been making waves in the local scene King’s Landing and which I’m sure will get us a agent any time soon.“ only for it to be killed by Viserys.

“Yeah I’m sure, look your pants are next to the door and your dragon undies uh under the bed maybe so could you please get dressed and maybe we have a chance to get you out yet.”

“Meanwhile until we’re found, I have a degree in Computer Science and work as a programmer.” he continued not really sure why he wanted the Dornish woman’s approval or respect, or how she managed to remember his underwear had dragon imprints.

“That’s a good job, real solid ” Arianne said honestly surprised he didn’t seem a nerd like her brother but he had no reason to lie about his work “I finished a Masters of Arts and working in the design department I’ve done a lot of web design lat ... ”

“Of course not just any type of programming, I’m a games developer we’re working on a MMORPG right now where you can be several races like dragonkin ... ” the platinum haired blonde interrupted.

“You ... are useless to me.” Arriane declared flatly this time it was her who was closing the gap between them.

“Well you really should have realised that last night before we ...” Viserys started to counter but they were interrupted by the sound of the door opening.

“Oh, I’m sorry Arianne you told us your boyfriend would arrive later today so I didn’t expect to catch you kids in the he he ... ” Elia’s sweet voice began stopping only so she could raise her hand to dramatically cover her field of vision although in truth she had seen enough her niece topless in her bed with a pale breathlessly discussing with a pale stranger, obviously the boyfriend she kept talking about “the right one”,”the trustworthy one ”,”the he’s not a party kid he’s accomplished” one.

Although there was a small part of her mind which was sending danger signals, there was something about that build and the hair as much as she managed to see before voluntarily shielding their nudity.

Elia could hear the sound of Arianne’s bra straps clicking into position so she decided to take a closer look immediately feeling her heart stop a little, the slim build, the silver blonde hair now in a pony tail, those purple eyes so much like Rhaegar but his age and the lack of melancholic air betrayed who she was seeing.

“Viserys ? You and Arianne have been together all this time ?” she could only ask.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There exists a RL band named Dragonforce, but the name is just so perfect for Viserys's (and Dany's) garage band that I just had to declare that they don't exist in this universe and thus the name was up for grabs and fit in perfectly with the Targ dragon obsession.


	2. Missunderstandings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Modern Day AU Viserys and Arianne aren't on the same wave length about the phrase "waking the dragon"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is supposed to be text messages/sms/snapchat etc so the characters aren't using proper grammar of pronunciation as to type faster or because of the heat of the moment.

Viserys: "there's this concert at the Red Keep Mall Saturday, wanna come ?"

Arianne: "can't"

Viserys: "the concert's because it's the mall 5 years or something anniversary ... huge offers on shoes etc ;)"

Arianne: "if I said I can't ... I can't I have to drive dad to his monthly check-up"

Viserys: "you're waking the dragon, you know this no ?"

Arianne: "oooh poor little dragon ;)))"

Viserys: "actually it's not u it's ur dad's gout waking my dragon"

Arianne: "what ??? ewww stop it or we're not talking anymore"

Several days later

Viserys: "look i'm sorry i now i was a ass I know your father didn't ask for your gout so me being annoyed at it was assinine"

Arianne: "waking the dragon == annoyed ?"

Viserys: "yes annoyed,testy, u know ... but you heard me using the phrase a lot of times what did you think it ment ?"

Two hours later

Arianne: "I know the dragon was your family’s thing but you know dragons are wyrm like things and you know I thought worm like thing awakening or arising, get it ???"

Viserys: "OMG"

Viserys: "w8 but I mentioned you being late woke the dragon and you've allays been 30 minutes late since then I mentioned a perfume woke my dragon you'd wear it a lot"

Arianne: "so while I was thinking you valued us too much to risk it ... u were just ignorant this whole time "

A couple days later

Viserys: "Arianne ?"

A couple days later

Viserys: "Look can we talk about this ?"

A couple hours later

Viserys: "come on arianne pls"

Viserys: "arianne"

Arianne: "u get 1 more chance dragon boy"


	3. Game of Code

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Having recently landed her first job in IT, Arianne Martell gets caught up in the office politics at Storm End's Software and winds up needing to study under resident script kid Viserys Targaryen with the final objective of usurping his position. But Viserys isn't willing to part with all his secrets and leave himself vulnerable.

Today was the big day for Arianne, a new job, her first now that she re-oriented herself into IT, her only prior real job having been doing design for print magazines and pamphlets.

But like her old boss had said morosely "Print had fought valiantly, print had fought honourably and print will die."

His bitter stories about the sad state of the current print industry, had really gotten her motivated to make the jump to a field with more staying power and which honestly would leave her with more dragons in the bank at the end of the day.

As she entered the office building and went to the floor Davos had told her she would work on, Arianne found herself in a empty office thinking she'd exaggerated and came earlier than she intended.

That thought was dispelled after a quick peek at her watch which confirmed indeed it was 10 in the morning, where was everybody? 

Arianne took the time to scout out what she supposed would be her work area, it was quite spacious but still the desks were grouped near each other.

In the back of the room and in a prime observation position there were 3 desks, one had 3 monitors connected to a huge PC and the desk was littered with notebooks which she assumed were filled with code and sketches creating the impression of a man with both too much work and too little time to get his things properly organized.

In contrast the desk joined to it in the centre was flawless, it probably contained more papers and notebooks than the other but they were meticulously organized as to maximize space, it had two monitors on it but no computer leading Arianne to believe it's owner must be using a laptop and was probably more of a manager than a programmer. 

The final desk on the right obviously belonged to a woman,if the bright red leather purse was any reliable indication, oddly enough the computer and all it’s peripherals were the same strong shade of red, Arianne could not help but admire the dedication to a theme.

This one and it's overly ordered neighbour had mugs of coffee on them, the fact that steam was still rising from them meant that their occupants must have arrived before her and just left.

The next 3 desks were grouped together in the centre of the room, each with a pc and two monitors each in a state of semi-chaos with books like "Gang of Eight: Design Patterns" and "Node.Js: Finally web scale" strewn about what differentiated them was that one had a ship in a bottle, the middle one had a lot of hair care products and the last seemed to have some oily stains on it.

The last two desks were separate from the rest, in fact it seemed that the owner of the first desk had deliberately put as much space between him/herself and the others and the second had just been added and joined to the loner.

Arianne recognized this because the second desk held only a laptop two monitors were also present but hadn't even been plugged in, moving to get a closer look she saw a sticky note with her name on the laptop "Martell A, Front End Developer, Junior". 

She resisted the instinct to do a little victory dance right there and then, to land this job she had to go through a series of gruelling interviews each more challenging than the last, each filling her with dread that this was going to be the last here you failed.

But in the end she didn't, in the end she got a call from Mr. Davos congratulating her and asking her when could she start (they had preferred as soon as possible).

As Arianne sat herself down and opened the laptop, apparently it hadn't been secured with a password yet, she couldn't help but steal a peak at the desk besides her, whomever owned it was going to be her neighbour in the 8+ hours she would need to spend at work. 

And it wasn't looking very good, the desk was simply a mess, chaos in it's purest form, and he seemed to be a gamer ? 

She picked up one of the little statues that littered his desk, felt it in her hand, it was heavy, lead most likely and had a hexagonal base, the figure it depicted was that of a small dragon in flight, indeed it seemed most of his toy soldiers represented dragons with only a few men thrown into the lot.

Beyond this little army there were also a number of dice strewn about, or it seemed to her that they should be dice they weren't in the standard cube shape yet they had the markings on them if she had to guess their special shapes were to get the number of sides right.

Quite ingenious she thought if you needed to generate random numbers too bad they were wasted on games, and two heavy books, specially made to look faux-medieval and with titles like "Dragonomicon" and "Chosen of the Dragons".

What was also weird is that her new neighbour seemed to have three monitors, as if they were in a film and having more screens would increase your hacking power, Arianne lightly chuckled imagining her unseen co-worker as Neo from the Matrix appearing in the office in a black leather duster then sitting down to code with his sunglasses still on.

Her wandering thoughts were interrupted by the familiar sound of a incoming message in Skype, “hi Arianne, have you arrived at the office by any chance ?” it read.

After she confirmed that she was indeed at the office, Davos asked her if she could join him in a certain meeting room, providing instructions on how to find it, as she began making her way Arianne steeled herself, it was too soon for her to have made a good impression but fate could conspire at any time to bring her low, a bad call to her previous boss, something she’d had posted on her social network now being discovered, a myriad events way above her pay grade resulting in her position being axed.

As she found the meeting room and entered she found Davos, smiling and apparently very lively sitting alongside a younger man in a suit, the man was so focused on some document on his laptop that Davos had the elbow him so that he might acknowledge her.

He introduced himself as Stannis Baratheon, the project manager and Scrum Leader for her team.

She had no idea what the second title meant but she assumed that she would take her marching orders from him no matter what title he’d use manager, scrumm or one true king made no difference.

Davos started the first wave of the charm offensive as to soften her up, did she find her desk did she meet her team-members, I hope everyone is treating you nicely, I hope the laptop meets your requirements.

Stannis on the other hand had taken the bad/silent cop role and was sticking to it, the stress he was causing Arianne was probably intentional, forcing Arianne to shift her attention between Davo’s pleasantries and his grimness.

“Davos, sorry to interrupt you but I have a budget meeting with Robert if we could please inform Ms Martell of her duties now so that I can make it in time.” Stannis interrupted finally signalling that the important discussion had begun.

“Hmm, Arianne we try to run a tight ship here and we’ve had some problems in one area, the front end we need more manpower we need more dis ... I understand you’re new to the field this being your first job ”

“Yes and I’m eager to learn all that ... ” she interjected as to reafirm herself as a good hire. 

“That was Viserys ... I’ll get him” Stannis suddenly said as he’d spotted a shadow moving outside the foggy glass door of the conference room.

Shortly he returned accompanied by a tall young man, his colouring was obviously Valyrian having silver hair tied up in a “man bun” and dark purple eyes unlike anything she’d ever seen, his build lithe he obviously wasn’t a athlete maybe he did some light running.

“This is Arianne Martell.” Stannis said of her.

“Hi, nice to meet you ... ” Viserys said extending a hand although Arriane did catch him throwing Stannis a “and I should care because ?” look.

“Ms Martell got the highest score on those javascript and css tests I asked you to grade two weeks back, and thus is your new intern.” Davos intervened.

Arianne couldn’t help but wince at those tests, she had to study and grind so hard so many books and tutorials, so many of her personal hours as she was still working at her old job while trying to find a programming job.

And right up until the end she thought she wasn’t going to make it, until she’d gotten the reply that she was good enough and apparently this man Viserys had made that call that she was good enough.

Viserys for his own part seemed to be become uncomfortable as well.

“Those results were ... no matter I see how this will work out gentlemen, Miss Martell I must beg my leave it’s much to early and the dragon can’t awaken without some coffee. ” Viserys said hastily and retreated without awaiting for a reply.

“Huh so that’s dragon boy.” Arianne caught herself saying having put two and two together about her desk being joined to the dragon littered desk and her new mentor’s odd dragon slash coffee turn of phrase.

“You think he knows ?” Davos asked her new manager in the mean time.

“He’s not that much of an idiot, Mellisandre gave him enough warnings ... ”

“Sorry new girl here and out of the loop, what should be known ?”

“Arriane the reason we hired you is that we need a new front end dev, one with Viserys’s skills but without the attitude.”

“Learn from him everything he knows so we can fire him or fail and we’ll fire you.” Stannis said his tone allowing no discussion on the subject.


End file.
